The Fellowship of Lifea Christian-based vegetarian group founded in 1973

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Letters - By J. M. Gilheany
On meatless Fridays Catholics should reflect on the violence of the slaughterhouse

From Mr John M Gilheany, author of Familiar Strangers: The Church and
the Vegetarian Movement in Britain (1809-2009)

SIR – When Sir Paul
McCartney launched an international campaign to encourage “Meat-Free
Mondays” a few years ago, concern was expressed among Catholic
commentators that a unique aspect of the faith had been forfeited and
basically recycled by secularists.

On the surface, the two forms of weekly abstinence appear to be
disparate. The Catholic penitential tradition will in future require
vegans to transcend temporal tastes with precisely the same effort and
sacrificial focus as those who regularly consume animal products.
Whereas those of a secular “flexitarian” persuasion who decide to cut
down on their meat intake are inclined to view the traditionally western
foodstuff as increasingly unsustainable; both environmentally and
ethically.
It may even be argued that the Catholic conscience has inwardly
recognised that within wider culture the products of slaughter often
represent a particular challenge in the struggle for spiritual mastery
over the flesh.

There is no evidence of such considerations in the recent announcement
by the bishops of England and Wales (Report, May 20).

However, there seems to be an implication that to renounce meat in
order to facilitate “control of self-indulgence and unruly appetites”
and “connect to the pain and suffering of the world” (Leading article,
May 20) – is to acknowledge the uneasy relationship that exists between
spirituality and slaughterhouse products.
Nor is the dichotomy anything new. The vegetarian movement in Britain
was often led by Christian ethicists in the course of its historical
development. An early leaflet by the Vegetarian Society comprised an
extract from a sermon by Cardinal Manning to promote “Thoughts about
Lent”, while the Bishop of Salford, in 1887, addressed their membership
with a message of traditional Catholic affinity for their diet and even
a prediction that the vegetarian lifestyle “will, in the long run,
prevail all over England”.

Such a vision may remain centuries away for the Church and certainly
other elements of modern society. Yet it might be pertinent to reflect
upon the institutional violence of the slaughterhouse at least once a
week, while striving towards spiritual separation from a less than
divine state of affairs.